Abstract: In the Netherlands and the adjacent part of the North Sea Basin, Early Pleistocene cold conditions are recognised on the basis of pollen and foraminiferal evidence in marine cores and periglacial structures and Scandinavian erratics in exposures on land. These indicators demonstrate that cold conditions were occurring regularly in pre-Elsterian times, but that there is no direct evidence for glaciation reaching this far south. Only during a Cromerian Substage (MIS 12 or 16) may ice have been present on Dutch territory, but this is based on circumstantial evidence only. For the Elsterian, there is by now good evidence for the presence of ice in the northern part of the country. On land this is based on, for example, tills in boreholes and deep subglacial tunnel valleys in the subsoil. In the North Sea Basin, the evidence is more fully understood on the basis of extensive geophysical surveys, which demonstrate the presence of a network of tunnel valleys and push moraines. However, the biggest question in relation to the Elsterian glaciation is the extent of a supposed ice-dammed lake in the southern North Sea basin (related to the formation of the Channel) for which so far sedimentological evidence is lacking. The Saalian glaciation is the best known glaciation as most of the surface expression of the northern half of the country has been shaped by it. A continuous belt of deep glacial basins surrounded by large push moraines stretches across the country, and their intersections have led to a number of reconstructions for glacial events and dynamics. In the North Sea basin, the ice border can be delineated by lithology and disppears in a northeasterly direction. Within the Dutch sector the ice margin does—contrary to popular belief—not cross the North Sea towards England. During the Weichselian, the British Ice Sheet reached into the Dutch sector of the North Sea, while the Scandinavian Ice Sheet did not reach the country.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 46
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